Braves, Wren send right message with deadline trades
Rick Ankiel, a converted pitcher, hit 25 homers in 2008 and will fill the Braves' void in center field.
Sports fans scream for a championship every season. But really all most expect is for somebody in the executive suite — whether it’s the person who’s making trades or clutching the checkbook — to care as much as they do.
As a general rule, “We’re building for next season,” just doesn’t play well with the guy in the $6 seat.
Given that, the Braves should be commended today. They’re being as passionate and proactive off the field as they have been on it. They’re trying to win now, not sitting back and praying for unicorns.
Maybe Philadelphia’s acquisition of Roy Oswalt spooked them a little. Maybe they see something special in this team. Maybe they’re intent on trying to send Bobby Cox out with a championship.
Kyle Farnsworth excelled as a closer for the Braves in 2005.
Does it matter?
Drink this up Atlanta: You have a team going for a championship.
Faced with a tight trade market and a thin budget, general manager Frank Wren managed to improve the team anyway. This is the way things are supposed to work with playoff contenders at trade deadlines.
Trade deadlines highlight the serious players and expose the pretenders.
The Braves made a five-player trade with Kansas City. Outfielder Rick Ankiel and Kyle Farnsworth come this way. Gregor Blanco, Jesse Chavez and prospect Tim Collins go that way. If you break this deal down by player, Chavez’s exit will result in the loudest single cheer. At some point, the question became not whether he would make it as a Brave, but whether he would make it to the parking lot.
He had a 5.89 ERA. He had given up six home runs, 40 hits and 12 walks in 36 2/3 innings. Torch-carrying villagers were starting to wait for him outside the stadium.
But Ankiel and Farnsworth provide immediate help. Ankiel can fill the Braves’ black hole in center field. He brings some power (having his 25 homers in 2008), even if he’s currently hitting only .261 with four homers. Farnsworth, who was briefly a lights-out closer for the Braves in 2005, has been strong out of the bullpen this season (3-0, 2.42).
Neither is a centerpiece. Neither has to be.
They fit what the Braves need and what this team has become. The roster lacks star power, but makes up for it in depth, aggressiveness and chemistry. They just needed a boost lately, with Philadelphia rising, the lineup settling and Troy Glaus looking more and more like a one-month wonder.
Credit Wren. If this and other recent moves lead to the Braves’ first postseason berth since 2005, he may have just sewed up Executive of the Year honors.
Approaching the trade deadline, Wren had to feel like he was duct-taped to a lamp post. Dead money was killing the budget. Fact is, for all of Wren’s success in rebuilding the roster over the past three years, he still was paying the price for three significant miscalculations: Derek Lowe (four years, $60 million), Kenshin Kawakami (three years, $23 million) and Nate McLouth (three years, $15.75 million). The three read like a bad 401k portfolio.
Lowe was signed to be an ace. He quickly become a fourth starter making $15 million a year. Kawakami was signed to be a second or third starter. By midway through this season he couldn’t even hang on to the No. 5 job and was jettisoned to the bullpen.
Nobody has seen him since. He’s like D.B. Cooper.
McLouth, acquired from Pittsburgh, was expected to be the perfect bridge to Jordan Schafer. That’s an “oops” to the second power.
Expensive mistakes hamstring general managers. Lowe, Kawakami and McLouth represent $27 million of an $85 million payroll (31.7 percent) this season. Factor in Chipper Jones’ $14 million contract, and that’s $41 million for four players (48.2 percent).
Wren suggested in recent days that he likely wouldn’t do anything. The market was too tight. The budget seemed blown. He also kind of liked his team.
“We’re talking to teams,” Wren said a few days ago, “but we’re not putting a full-court press on.”
Either he was being less than truthful then or something changed. Doesn’t matter. He chose not to sit back. Serious teams don’t do that. The message about this season seems clear.
♦
You don’t need no stinkin’ DVR: Last 3 posts
♦ Dwight Howard opens up on LeBron, Shaq and Josh’s wedding (sssh)
♦ Roy Oswalt going to Phillies, and Braves need to respond
♦ Blank says Falcons are playoff team again (and maybe more)
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490 comments Add your comment
POAD
August 1st, 2010
5:05 pm
Thank GOD the BRAVES are not the ga bullmutts run by Damon “Red Panties” Evans.
Jesse James
August 1st, 2010
5:08 pm
Hey POAD that is getting old!
Jon
August 1st, 2010
5:30 pm
Robert Dean – I completely agree with you. However, Schultzie plays it off like Ankiel never did anything wrong. I guess he has to to appease the average Braves fan who thinks this organization is the salt of the earth. But he has no problem ripping into guys like Bonds and A-Rod for doing the exact same thing.
July 31 News and Notes – FOXSports.com | Newsroom News
August 1st, 2010
5:35 pm
[...] Braves, Wren send right message with deadline tradesAtlanta Journal Constitution (blog)Last minute deals for Dotel, Farnsworth, OhmanChicago Breaking Sports – Tribuneall 341 news articles » [...]
POAD
August 1st, 2010
6:15 pm
Damn Braves we need wins!!!
Bill in VA
August 1st, 2010
6:20 pm
65 LOB in the weekend series. 65!!!!!!! That sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOL!
August 1st, 2010
6:23 pm
Braves and Wren send a message? Yeah, we have no money to spend. Every reference in this story about success is from 2005 or 2008. It is 2010. Wren is trying to fake us out, Bobby “it’s a crapshoot” Cox, will find a way to blow it if they get in the playoffs, and it would be appropriate that this team wins the division in a thrilling race with the Phillies and then lose to the wild card team in Cox’s final year.
Tomahawk Take Poll:Reactions to the Braves Deadline Deal | Tomahawk Take | An Atlanta Braves Blog
August 1st, 2010
6:55 pm
[...] AJC writer Jeff Schultz says the Braves sent the right message by making the trade. That message is that they are not going to stand pat and are pushing hard to try and send Bobby Cox out as a winner this year. [...]
don
August 1st, 2010
6:57 pm
Looks like Ankiel will fit right in with Cabrera and McLouth.
Does anyone else think that the Farnsworth of a last place team is not the same as the Farnsworth with a team in the pennant race? He has a long record of failure.
At least Blanco got a hit today and KC won.
World Wide News Flash
August 1st, 2010
7:17 pm
Braves, Wren send right message with deadline trades | Jeff Schultz…
I found your entry interesting do I’ve added a Trackback to it on my weblog
…
It's a shame what he did to that dog
August 1st, 2010
7:40 pm
“Braves, Wren send right message with deadline trades”
Yeah, it’s such a right message the Braves have managed to lose three series in a row.
Jesse James
August 1st, 2010
8:20 pm
We didn’t hit on this road trip, but I am telling you that we played three pretty good ball clubs.
Wayne J
August 1st, 2010
8:55 pm
This trade will not change anything significantly. It is just another trade for the sake of making a trade. We have a long history of trading for someone who used to be good.
Chris Snow
August 1st, 2010
10:27 pm
How long do yall think Prado will really be out?
Buster Olney
August 2nd, 2010
7:32 am
BUSTER OLNEY’S TRADE COMMENTS
“The Atlanta Braves got two veteran players in Kyle Farnsworth and Rick Ankiel, and this left a lot of folks with other teams wondering whether either is a winning player, given Farnsworth’s history in big spots and Ankiel’s inconsistency. Both players will now have the opportunity to show that they can help a club win under pressure.”
Braves #5
August 2nd, 2010
8:01 am
We could have got Adam Dunn if stupid Wren would give up on Tommy Hanson !!
jo
August 2nd, 2010
8:07 am
Braves will finish 3rd. Their hitting is suspect as always and their defence has returned to April levels. When we lose 2-1 and strand 10 guys on base, half of those in scoring position, we are just not a good team. However, if we finish with 90 wins, who knows what could happen….but I am counting on 85 wins…
J-man
August 2nd, 2010
8:56 am
On the plus side Wren didn’t give up anything the Braves will miss and Farnsworth should help. But getting excited over Ankiel is kind of like arguing whether Hitler or Stalin was worse. Both were pretty bad. Ankiel is maybe less bad than Cabrera, but you gotta love Bobby Cox. He found a way to keep Cabrera in the lineup anyway. I’m finding it hard to believe that a team that starts both Ankiel and Cabrera in the OF is going to go to the playoffs.
Phillistein
August 2nd, 2010
9:02 am
Ok Braves!!!
The mark of a good team is that, when your opponent is down………..you step on their throat and don’t let them breathe. The Mutz would like nothing better than to play the spoiler. Your game is on national TV tonight…………
Frankly……….I only marginally care. The MUTZ are/were the most arrogant team in the national league. They’re getting what they deserve. but, if they do manage to beat you……….wouldn’t be the worst thing.
Santana Vs. Hudson………..should be a good game
Don
August 2nd, 2010
9:35 am
Mr. Schultz:
Do you really think that Bobby Cox won’t blow it??
AFTER ALL:
(1) If he played McLouth full time with him producing almost nothing during the first 1/4 of the season or longer (even through the 9 game losing streak) with Hinske and Infante on the bench (Diaz was injured at the time) -and caused the loss of who knows how many games;
(2) If he hit Chipper in the 3rd spot in the batting order all season with him hitting in the .230s or below a significant part of the time and producing few RBI. – causing the loss of how many games?? (Assuming he was going to be in the lineup, he did not have to hit 3rd.);
(3) If he has continued to hit Glaus in the 4th or 5th spot in the batting order throughout long long slumps – even if he was not going to take him out of the lineup – costing who knows how many games;
(4) If he played both Melky and McLouth full time in the outfield during the first 1/4 of the season or longer (one of them in a corner slot- with neither of them producing – with both Infante and Hinske on the bench – cosing how who knows how many games:
(5) If he even placed McLouth back in the lineup afte he came off the DL and did not show signs that he had come out of it in his rehab at AAA’
(6) If even after the acquistion of the new Centerfielder, he stuck Melky back in the outfield yesterday in a corner spot;
(7) When Heyward was off to a great start – being patient, being selective, hitting to all fields, hitting great, producing great; Cox then said that he should be more aggressive – Soon thereafter, Heyward stopped being patient and selective, started swinging at bad pitches, overswinging, pulling everything (or at least a lot more) and his hitting and production went in the tank;
(8) And after his continued misuse of the bullpen like in so many other seasons:
(9) Not to even mention all of Cox’s questionalble in game strategy moves that could be argued one way or the other:
WITH THIS KIND OF MANAGEMENT.
Do you really think that there is any reasonable chance that BOBBY COX WILL NOT BLOW IT??????
Trade Nate for a Bag of balls
August 2nd, 2010
9:45 am
Numbers:
Yunel is hitting against TERRIBLE AL Pitching.
Dan
August 2nd, 2010
9:48 am
Does not matter who the Braves get, Bobby Cox is still in charge so it’ll all go for naught.
Don
August 2nd, 2010
10:10 am
One good thing about Bobby Cox being the manager this year — We don’t need to worry about making a deal or not making a deal – or whether a deal was good or bad — Fact is there is no need to worry about anything — BECAUSE BOBBY COX IS GOING TO BLOW IT – no matter what (withing reason)
Don
August 2nd, 2010
10:15 am
It is a good thing that a movie has not been made of Bobby Cox’s management this season – because a significant number of things that he has done have been so absurd that they would be considered to be too unbelievable to be included.
bushwacker
August 2nd, 2010
10:25 am
Nothing against Ankiel but there was a reason he signe dwith Kansas City.
Ever since we sent Blanco down so McLouth could be brought back we have played under 500 ball.
Now McLouth is finally gone for good but so is Blanco, bad move.
Blanco was finally becoming the the hitter we need at the top of the order, the top of the order for the next 10 years could have been:
1, Gregor Blanco, CF
2, Omar Infante, 2B
3, Martin Prado, 3B
4, Jayson Heyward, RF
TOO LATE NOW!
papadawg
August 2nd, 2010
10:39 am
I’m tired of Cox management style. I’m going to live thru this year and hopefully the Braves Management won’t blow it on a new guy and I’ll see better ball next year
Doug
August 2nd, 2010
10:49 am
I left the country and was out of touch for 10 days and the Braves surged. Ever since I came back they have stunk again. I’m willing to leave again if that will help.
Tell it like it is
August 2nd, 2010
11:17 am
The Braves pitching looks like playoff material, other than that———————————–
Don
August 2nd, 2010
11:21 am
Doug,
Don’t think it would help for you to leave the country.
Now if you could get Bobby to leave, that is an entirely different question.
Any possibility of that???
tulsabravo
August 2nd, 2010
11:30 am
Hey Shultz, You are an idiot. The Braves did nothing to address their immediate needs, unless you see Farnsworth moving to the setup position, and that’s shaky at best. Just another reason why I can’t stand Wren.
Tazz2293
August 2nd, 2010
11:45 am
LMFAO 0- The Braves are done!
Are you ready for some football?
Don
August 2nd, 2010
11:50 am
After seeing the game and after seeing the box score in the newspaper-
SOMEONE TELL ME:
After getting a new centerfielder, Bobby Cox DIDN’T REALLY put MELKY back in the OUTFIELD yesterday in a corner spot.
Surely, that is not possible.
Don
August 2nd, 2010
11:51 am
Sorry, I forgot — There ain’t no cure for DUMB
Roy Hobbs
August 2nd, 2010
12:18 pm
Love the DB Cooper reference. Nice touch.
I dont like this move any more than the Escobar move for the long run, and think its mostly smoke and mirrors to make the faithful think everything is being done that can be done.
I would be far more impressed if KK joins McClouth in Gwinnett and an actual pitcher is brought in to fill in the last spot in the bullpen. That would tell me that Wren, Cox, etc have all checked ego’s at the door and are truly doing everything in their power to win this year.
papadawg
August 2nd, 2010
1:30 pm
Glaus mojo, Dang it we need TEAM MOJO
James
August 2nd, 2010
3:13 pm
Rick Ankiel reminds me of Kelly Johnson he’s going to be a bust for the braves,
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